The Whole Truth
by Every Shade of Blue
Summary: What I wish had happened between DMC and AWE, because frankly, Will and Elizabeth not talking to each other just makes me sad. If you love Wilabeth as much as I do, I promise it'll make you smile! And then once you've smiled, leave a review ;D


This is what _should_ have happened between Dead Man's Chest and At World's End. At least, if you're a Wilabeth shipper it is. If you're Sparrabeth... well, I can't help you. You'll have to look elsewhere, because I'm Wilabeth to the core!

**Disclaimer:** I regret to inform you that I do not own Pirates of the Caribbean. I do, however, own an undead monkey. Top that.

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**The Whole Truth**

He knew his back hurt, and that was a start at least. He couldn't recall much else at the moment. He had a feeling that he had been unconscious. Or maybe he still was. Or semi-conscious. That made sense. Yes, he decided to go with semi-conscious. That raised a few questions. Like, for example, why he had been unconscious in the first place. It was something to do with his back hurting…

Wait, hold on… he was remembering a name. No, two names. One was his own, that was obvious enough. The other had some fairly heavy emotions attached to it: love, longing, pain, betrayal…

Will Turner stirred slightly from his unconsciousness.

"Elizabeth…"

He wasn't expecting an answer, but he got one anyway.

"Will!" Elizabeth let out what sounded like a sigh of relief. "Finally! Are you all right?"

Will's eyes flew open, but he had to blink several times before anything would come into focus. He tried to move, but stopped quickly as the pain in his back doubled.

He swallowed hard. "W-what happened?"

"Your wounds got infected." She shook her head. "I wish you had told me you were hurt. But you men just don't do that, do you?" Will couldn't tell if she was more exasperated or amused.

He let his eyes wander over the room. It wasn't familiar.

"Where are we?"

"Still in Tia Dalma's hut," Elizabeth answered. "We would have left yesterday, but then you collapsed, so here we are."

Will winced, couldn't help grinning slightly. "Are you waiting for me to apologize?"

The corner of Elizabeth's mouth twitched upward. She couldn't help it; he always made her smile.

In the silence that now stretched between them, Will could feel that something had changed. Something integral was missing from their rapport, and their conversation didn't flow the way it always had. The silence felt heavy, wrong somehow. He could make her smile, but he couldn't make her laugh, and he didn't like the change.

"What happened to us, Elizabeth?" he asked quietly.

She looked up at him, confusion in her eyes. "What?"

Ignoring the burning stabs of pain that flared through his back, Will pushed himself upright.

"What happened between us? A week ago we were going to be married; now we can barely speak to one another. And I saw – " He stopped suddenly, unwilling to speak the words, as though saying it out loud would make the implications of it true.

But Elizabeth paled slightly, knowing full well what he had been about to say.

"You saw me – you saw what I did."

Will didn't respond, but she knew the pain that was evident in his eyes was not because of his back, and that more than confirmed it for her.

"Will, I – I had no choice. He had to stay behind. There was nothing else…"

"You had no choice?" Will whispered, looking more hurt than ever. "Are you saying I'm not enough for you anymore?"

Elizabeth felt a faint confusion at his reaction. "Why would you… It wasn't us, it was him. If he'd come with us, we all could have died… _You_ could have died," she finished quietly.

The hurt in Will's eyes had faded, to be replaced with the same confusion that Elizabeth had felt.

"What… Elizabeth – " He moved closer to her, looking her in the eye. "What exactly did you do?"

Like the sun emerging over the horizon, it gradually began to dawn on Elizabeth what the problem was, and she suddenly felt even more guilt than she had previously. Will didn't know the whole truth. He only knew half the story – the half that was likely to hurt him more than anything else.

"Oh, Will…" she whispered in horror, "I'm so sorry. You – you thought I loved him, didn't you?"

"You mean you don't love him?" Will asked, a faint trace of hope gleaming in his dark eyes.

"No!" Elizabeth said quickly. "I love _you_, Will. I've always loved you."

Relief was now battling confusion for dominance. "Then why did you kiss him?"

Elizabeth's eyes filled with tears, and Will took both of her hands in his, holding them gently.

"You can tell me, Elizabeth," he whispered. "You can tell me anything. You know that, right?"

She nodded gratefully. "I know."

Will was still holding her hands in his, sitting close to her – very close – and pure love was shining in his warm eyes, comforting her quietly in the best way he knew how.

Finally, staring down at their entwined hands as though afraid of what she would see on his face if she looked up, Elizabeth said quietly, "I killed him, Will. The kraken was going to come back and it would have killed any and all of us to get to him, so I – I left him behind." A few tears spilled over, running down her face. "I only kissed him to distract him so I could shackle him to the mast."

Will suddenly released her hands, and Elizabeth felt a chill – but only for a second. Will cupped her face in his hands, gently wiping away her tears as he tilted her chin upward so she was looking at him.

"I know why you did it," he said softly, his voice quiet and reassuring. "I understand. Believe me, I know what it's like, to feel like you're trapped and there's only one way out. Sometimes there really is only one way, and I know you wouldn't have done it if you didn't think this was one of those times.

"And besides, we're going to fix this. We're going to bring him back, and everything will be fine. You did what you had to. You saved all the rest of us, so now we're going to go save Jack. All of us are alive instead of none of us, and it's thanks to you. Okay? No one even needs to know what happened. I won't tell anyone."

"And if they find out on their own?"

"I'll stand by you. I'm always on your side. That's a promise."

Elizabeth managed a tiny smile. "What would I do without you?" She pulled Will closer and rested her head against his chest.

He smiled slightly and kissed the top of her head. "I don't know, love." He laughed quietly. "Sometimes I think it's what I'd do without you that would be more of a problem."

Elizabeth laughed. "If I didn't have you I would have died of the boredom of absolutely insufferable society and a loveless marriage."

"And if I didn't have you I would have died when I was twelve."

Elizabeth looked up at him again and smiled. "I suppose we're about even then."

Will grinned. "I suppose we are."

Elizabeth settled back against his chest with a contented sigh. "I'm glad everything is all right between us again. It makes everything seem a little better somehow."

"I know what you mean," Will answered. Then he added thoughtfully, "I think you do owe me one thing, though."

Elizabeth raised her head again in some confusion. "What's that?"

The grin returned to Will's face. "Just tell me I kiss better than Jack does."

"I'm not sure," Elizabeth responded teasingly. "You haven't kissed me in a long time."

"I could fix that, if you want."

"I think you'd better."

He did.

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Just a little FYI: I was trying to imply that Will does, in fact, kiss better than Jack. Of course, that's not to say that I wouldn't test the theory if the opportunity were to arise. Heh.

And, btw, if you review I'll love you forever. Just thought you might like to know.


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